Medical Officers of Health were an integral part of public health administration after 1875, when the Public Health Act 1875 required each sanitary authority (after 1894 each borough or district council) to appoint a MOH. Medical officers were qualified medical practitioners, but were not usually allowed to practise privately, in order to avoid a possible conflict of interests. In 1911 Huntingdonshire County Council appointed a full-time County MOH, who collected information from the district MOHs.
Medical Officers of Health were required to report to their employing authority on matters of public health interest in their areas. The surviving reports can contain a great deal of interesting information about medical and health issues in particular places.
Huntingdonshire Archives:
Huntingdonshire County
- Medical Officer of Health - 1913, 1918-20, 1944-64
- School Medical Officer - 1941, 1944-62, 1964
Soke of Peterborough
- Medical Officer of Health - 1964
Huntingdon and Peterborough County
- County and Principal School Medical Officers - 1965-71
- Peterborough City - 1939,1954-55,1957-70
- Huntingdon Borough - 1877-1971
- Various other districts - 1961-71
Notifications of Births and Deaths
The Notification of Births (Extension) Act of 1915 made compulsory the notification to the MOH of the birth of every child. The Record Office holds:
- Hunts county returns and registers of notifications of births, 1919-1966
- Huntingdon RDC registers of notifications of births 1915-20 and deaths 1875-1937
- St Neots RDC registers of notifications of births 1917-1925
- Soke of Peterborough registers of notifications of births 1941-1966 and deaths 1944-66
Cambridgeshire Archives
-
Cambridgeshire County Council MOH reports: 1918-1973
- Isle of Ely MOH reports: 1920, 1922-1964
Cambridge Borough MOH reports: 1912-1914, 1934, 1946-7, 1949-72
[The Cambridgeshire Collection holds
MOH reports on the Sanitary Condition of
the Borough of Cambridge 1875-1949]
- South Cambridgeshire RDC MOH reports: 1951-66, 1968-69
- Chesterton RDC MOH reports: 1887-1938, 1941-1971
- Chesterton Union MOH reports: 1887-1893
- Swavesey RDC MOH reports : 1922, 1924-29, 1931
- Newmarket MRDC MOH reports: 1895-1938, 1941-1967
- Newmarket Rural Sanitary Authority MOH reports: 1874-1894
Notifications of births and deaths:
- Register of notifications of births in Cambridge 1937-60, 1962-63, 1966, 1968. (closed to public inspection until 50 years old).